Media Release Detail

â€‹Daniel Andrews rips $20 million out of Peter Mac

Friday, April 03, 2015

Peter Mac Private adds 42 additional beds and 4
additional theatres to the VCCC at no additional cost to the taxpayer

Is in addition to the VCCC’s 160 public beds, 42
critical care beds, 110 same day places, 8 operating theatres and 2 day
procedure rooms

After a year-long tender process a Heads of
Agreement has been signed with a Private operator and a lease has already been
taken out by the State for the private floor owned by Plenary (PPP partner)

Would enable Peter Mac and VCCC to:

Treat more patients and enable patient choice re
public and private care

Help attract the best and brightest clinicians
and researchers

Increase the number and range of clinical trials

State Government refusing a private facility at
Peter Mac:

Downgrades the potential of Peter Mac to be
world class

Will lose $20 million in philanthropic funding
which was contingent on a co-located Private Hospital

Will require a reduction in public beds,
theatres and ancillary services to meet the funding shortfall

The Women’s Hospital and Frances Perry, built
and opened by the previous Labor Government, operates on the same basis as is
proposed for Peter Mac Private

This is yet another contract being trodden all
over by Daniel Andrews.

Quotes attributable
to Shadow Minister for Health Mary Wooldridge:

“By ripping $20
million out of Peter Mac Daniel Andrews is cruelly affecting the treatment and
survival of thousands of Victorian with cancer.

“In making the
decision to reject Peter Mac Private, Daniel Andrews is playing politics
instead of focussing on vital patient care.

“Daniel Andrews is
also single-handedly destroying Peter Mac’s capacity to be one of the world’s
top Comprehensive Cancer Centres.“Daniel Andrews must
guarantee that every one of the 160 public beds and 10 operating theatres at
the VCCC will be operational so Victorians with cancer do not have to pay for
his pig headed refusal to back the Peter Mac Board and their vision for a world
class cancer centre.”